The Parenting Journal

Every living room looks different. But the hazards inside them are remarkably consistent, and the window of time you have before a crawling baby becomes a cruising toddler becomes a full-sprint preschooler is shorter than it feels.I’ve been through this...

Spiral staircases look stunning. They also represent one of the more complicated babyproofing challenges you’ll face, because almost nothing about them is standard. The steps are wedge-shaped. The curve defeats most gates. The baluster spacing is often whatever the original...

The bathroom is the most dangerous room in your house. Not the kitchen, not the garage. The bathroom. It has water, electricity, chemicals, hard surfaces, and small objects all packed into a space your toddler can reach in about four...

Key Takeaways Any spindle gap a 4-inch ball passes through is a head-entrapment hazard. A stair gate blocks access but does nothing about gaps along the railing. Acrylic guards are reversible, mesh netting covers wide openings, retrofit spindles are permanent....

Every 15 seconds, someone in the U.S. calls a poison center about an exposure, about 2.1 million calls in 2024 alone (America’s Poison Centers). A meaningful share of those calls involve a child who found something under a sink.I know...

Open staircases look stunning in a home. Clean lines, visible treads, that sense of space flowing between floors. Then you have a toddler, and every one of those beautiful gaps becomes something you lie awake thinking about.The problem with open...

The refrigerator is the most-opened appliance in your home. A curious two-year-old knows this. Mine certainly did.My younger daughter once cleared the bottom shelf of our fridge in under three minutes while I answered the front door. By the time...

Basements are where the hazards your child will find fastest are the ones you forgot were there. The half-empty jug of driveway sealer. The old shelving unit that wobbles if you look at it wrong. The sump pit you covered...

The dining room doesn’t look dangerous. That’s the problem. There’s no open water, no stairs, no obvious drop. What there is: hard edges at exactly toddler-head height, a tablecloth a curious two-year-old can yank with both fists, glassware at arm’s...